Losensteinleiten Castle

The largest historic building in the market town is Losensteinleiten Castle. In addition to the horseshoe-shaped castle with arcaded courtyard, the complex also includes a large garden with a castle pond and the mausoleum, which was built several hundred meters away at the edge of the forest. The exact beginnings of the lordship can no longer be precisely determined. It is certain that a Niklas Flusshart sold his possessions to Dietrich von Losenstein. Through the family of the "Losensteiner zu Leiten", the former village of Leiten got its current name Losensteinleiten. Bernhard I von Losenstein built the late medieval moated castle between 1409 and 1433, to which the regional jurisdiction was later transferred. Through his wife, Bernhard I also acquired the lordship over the Lower Austrian Schallaburg and the lordship of Gschwendt. Later, these possessions were divided among Bernhard's three sons, and Florian received the lordship of Losensteinleiten. Since the family was at home in Losensteinleiten, the ancestral castle in Losenstein increasingly fell into disrepair. Florian, the founder of the Losenstein zu Losensteinleiten line, was knighted by Emperor Friedrich in 1453 – during his coronation in Rome – on the Tiber Bridge. He was married to Magdalena Auer von Prennberg and left a son named Wilhelm upon his death in 1462. Wilhelm was a councilor to Emperor Maximilian I and inherited not only the lordship of Losensteinleiten but also the lordship of Gebenhofen in Bavaria from his mother. He married Barbara von Parsberg in 1476 and had five sons with her, of whom Acharz took over the lordship. Acharz died in 1527 and his son Christoph III von Losensteinleiten took over the lordship. When a Turkish army under Kassim Pascha made the area unsafe in 1532, the castle also suffered greatly. Between 1550 and 1570, the moated castle was enlarged by three wings by Georg Achaz I von Losenstein, a son of Christoph III.

When Georg Acharz I died in 1597, he left behind his wife Christine von Perkheim and his son Georg Christoph II. Georg Christoph II was Lord of Losenstein zu Losensteinleiten and was also able to unite the lordships of Schallaburg, Weidenholz, and Siechtenberg in his hands. He had married Anna von Stubenberg in 1610. At his early death in 1622, his son Georg Wolfgang was still a minor. The Losensteiners were zealous followers of the Lutheran doctrine and kept several court preachers. It was not until 1620 that the Losensteiners again professed the Catholic faith. Georg Acharz II, Count and Lord of Losenstein, bought the estate "Mayr zu Laach", which remained from the former noble seat of Hauzenbach, in 1627 as guardian of Georg Wolfgang. When Georg Wolfgang, the last of the Losenstein zu Losensteinleiten line, died in 1635, Losensteinleiten Castle passed to the Lords of Losenstein zu Gschwendt. After this line also died out with Franz Anton in 1692, all possessions of the Losensteiners passed to the Princes of Auersperg.

Little information has been preserved from the time when the castle was owned by the Princes of Auersperg. In the 18th century, the castle was rebuilt once more. Until the 1950s, the castle was inhabited by the princely family of Auersperg, but after the war damage of the Second World War, the castle fell into disrepair.

On June 1, 1955, Losensteinleiten Castle became the property of the Austrian Camillian Order Province. For twenty years, Losensteinleiten housed the province's minor seminary and a private grammar school with public rights …